Police foil Real IRA bombing

Police and soldiers in Northern Ireland have foiled an elaborate trap by the Real IRA to lure them to a bomb.

The dissident republican group planted 20kg (44lb) of homemade explosives near a hoax device at an empty hotel in the seaside resort of Newcastle, Co Down, planning to detonate it as security forces checked the false alert.

A telephone warning on Tuesday brought police and army bomb experts to the Enniskeen hotel, which was shut down for winter, where the hoax package was soon discovered. But a detective spotted a real device attached to a timer.

About 25 families were evacuated from their homes to a nearby church hall for 10 hours while the bomb was defused.

Inspector Paul McClean, of the police service of Northern Ireland, said: "A lot of planning went into this deliberate and reckless attempt to kill police officers.

"We were led to believe there was only one device and they anticipated we would seal off the area where the real bomb was hidden."

Police have thwarted a number of attacks by the Real IRA, the group which bombed Omagh, Co Tyrone, in August 1998, killing 29 people.

Meanwhile, loyalist paramilitaries are being blamed for a murder attempt on a 30-year-old man. A man with an English accent shot the victim in the stomach when he answered the door in Donacloney, Co Down. He is seriously ill in hospital.